The present invention relates to a method for loading and unloading cartridges inside the magazine of a firearm. Such magazine is for example of the cylinder type of a drum, to be applied on firearms placed either on military means, or on fixed positions.
Magazines are known, like the magazines of the Revolver guns, in which the cartridges are charged in a circular cylinder made by a plurality of chambers or seat where the cartridges are inserted.
In such technical solutions the cylinder, and in particular the various chambers, are fixed and the cartridge is triggered directly in the chamber, either making the function of the chamber coincide with that of the breech, or, through suitable systems and mechanisms, the cartridge is pushed by such chambers in a breech where it is subsequently triggered.
In the solution applied for the revolver guns, the rotation of the cylinder carries a new cartridge, at the mouth of the breech, ready for being deflagrated. This solution once applied to firearms like mortars, cannons and howitzers, which utilize cartridges with medium-large dimensions, requires to reinforce the aforementioned chambers, as the deflagrating power is great and it can damage both the chamber and the cylinder. In order to reinforce such chambers, it is necessary to realize a cylinder mechanism of great dimensions which occupies very large spaces.
However the direct deflagration in the chambers causes a great pressure loss by the deflagration, due to the presence of the gap in order to permit the rotation of the cylinder, so making less efficient the pushing on the bullet. Very great and heavy-duty cylinders are very heavy and require a greater effort for guaranteeing their rotation.
This solution is disadvantageous from an efficiency point of view and therefore it cannot be adopted on firearms of great dimensions.
A further technical solution known to a person skilled in the art consists in deflagrating the cartridge into a breech separated from the cylinder, by inserting a pushing mechanism of the cartridge from the chamber to the breech.
In said solution it is necessary that the cylinder be placed at a certain distance from the breech, for making space for a cradle so that in the recoil phase such cylinder is not damaged by the force unleashed by the deflagration. This distance involves the adoption of approaching systems of the cylinder or of the cradle, so that the actuator of the pushing mechanism can displace the cartridge contained in the chamber inside the breech, then moving away before the shot is deflagrated by the weapon.
An important problem is encountered in such solution after the deflagration, as it is necessary to free the breech from the shell in order to charge the next cartridge.
A known solution applied to light firearms like rifles or guns, plans to create vent chambers in which the gas generated in the breech by the deflagration is accumulated. Such gas is used for charging a spring mechanism which by means of an actuator pushes the cartridge out of the breech. But such solution is applied once terminated the recoil phase of the weapon. A further problem of the cylinder magazines of the known art is the extraction of the shells from the cylinder itself in order to permit the charging of new cartridges.
Such phase has the same problems seen in the aforementioned case for the charging of the cartridge inside the breech as it is necessary to provide for a mechanism which frees the chambers from the shells.
It is known that the firearms, mainly those of great dimensions, are equipped with a locking mechanism for the cartridges inside the chambers, in order to prevent them sticking out of their own chamber during the charging, the rotation or the positioning of the cannon with the raising required.
In order to free the cartridge a disengaging system of such locking mechanism is needed, which is disadvantageous in the known art in terms of execution time.
All these cited phases do not permit to have a very high firing rate, as such phases require a long and delicate procedure which cannot be excessively speeded up due to the use of mechanical systems. In firearms of great dimensions the firing rate is very important and such problem is not always of simple solution.